Technology should help make life easier. When it comes to smart home devices, ideally I’d prefer them to take over all the boring things – vacuuming, ironing, cutting the grass – and leave me free to do something more interesting instead.

The grass cutting is a fairly new one; until a year ago we lived in a house that had a postage stamp-sized bit of grass in the back garden, and no front garden to deal with. Then we moved, and suddenly had a decent front and back garden to mow on a regular basis. It’s time consuming and it’s tedious, but it’s part of having the extra space.

As you'd expect though, technology has come up with a solution: a robot lawn mower. The Husqvarna range has devices that are capable of tackling gardens of different sizes, from 600sq m to 5,000. You put in boundary wires that tell the mower the outer limits of your lawn, install the charging station and then let the Husqvarna do the rest of the work.

The version reviewed here is the Automower 405X. Designed to deal with lawns of up to 600sq m, it comes with GPS-assisted navigation built in. So not only can it figure out where it has already mowed, but you can keep an eye on its progress and location.

It also has LED headlights, and a front rubber bumper, both of which are essential for getting around the garden unscathed.

A hatch on the top of the mower gives you access to the control panel so you can manually start the operation, override the schedule or access other essential settings.

The Automower 405x works with the Automower Connect app to give you the same control but from the warmth of your living room. Once the schedule has been set, you need never touch the app again, unless you want to override the current schedule for some unplanned work. It’s very hands off, which is exactly how I like it.

The security features are also quite impressive. The previously mentioned GPS can be used to locate the mower’s current location. But there is also a built in alarm. Move the mower manually and an ominous ticking starts; you have 30 seconds to pop the hatch and put in your code before something that sounds like a car alarm goes off. It’s attention grabbing.

A few caveats. The boundary wires are essential for operation. Without them, the mower doesn’t know where to work and will just sit there. You can’t install the boundary wires in the back garden and simply carry the mower out to the front, although you could put wires in the front garden too and link them all up if you have a side entrance.

You also need access to a plug of some sorts to give the charging station some power. That could be an outdoor plug, or snaking the rather thin wire in through a window.

The mowers also have limits on the incline they can tackle, so if your garden has a steep hill, it may not be suitable.

You’ll also need to make sure that the garden is relatively clear of obstacles. Although the sensors on the mower will guide it around fixed obstacles such as children’s play equipment, any smaller things that get left on the lawn – small toys, paper, books and so on – will meet an untimely end.

We had a couple of incidents, usually involving a stray crisp packet or a small toy, that necessitated a clean up. That wasn’t fun; if you’ve ever tried picking up shredded plastic from grass, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

There were also a couple of incidents when playing around with the distance the mower can travel past the guidewire; the mower ended up stuck in a flower bed on a couple of occasions, or trapped on a kerb stone. In that case, it sends an alert to the app, so you know there is an issue and can deal with it.

Once you work out the relatively few issues you are bound to encounter, the whole operation is smooth. The Automower takes over responsibility for the bulk of the garden work, and all you have to do is tidy up the rest. And the bonus? Your grass could end up looking healthier for it.

Good

You can potentially free up hours of your time every month, particularly in the summer. Set a regular schedule and once the mower gets going, you’ll never have to touch it. Because it mows on a schedule, you can have the Automower tackle the lawn every two days at the cutting height you prefer. That means it never gets to the point where the lawn looks like it is getting out of control.

Another benefit, I’m told, is lawn health. Leaving the short clippings on the lawn itself is good for it – who knew? – although this will take several months before it becomes more apparent. The bonus is that you don’t have to get rid of large quantities of grass every few months, because nature has dealt with it.

Speaking of nature, the boundary wires can be used to fence off areas of your garden so if half is dedicated to grass and the other half to a wildflower meadow for pollinators, it’s flexible enough to accommodate that preference.

It’s also quiet, so you can run the mower at 6am without disturbing the neighbours.

Not so good

This isn’t a cheap option, though that depends on how much you value your time. Over time, it will certainly give you back hours of your life to spend doing something significantly more fun.

You will still need to deal with some areas of the garden – edges and around garden furniture and so on – because the size of the mower means it can’t get as close as you’d like. But given they are areas that a traditional mower would also struggle with, it’s not really any extra work.

The rest

If your lawn area is split, you’ll need to think about your set up a little more, possibly by installing more boundary wires.

The app allows you to link your voice assistant too, so you can add the mower to your smart home and control it via Google Assistant.

Verdict

Another task outsourced to technology – if you have the money.